George Auger

Well it's coming up 5 months since l had my stroke (27th August 2005) I am 45 soon to be 46 in April. 6ft 7inches tall, 14 stone and I was very fit, at the moment no one knows why l had a stroke and all tests have returned negative, apart from one which states I have a clotting abnormality - heterozygous for factor V leiden (sticky blood). This is my story.

Working as a Game Keeper in southern Russia, life was great. I had been given the job in Feb 2005 to build a totally wild bird shoot on 12,000 hectares, mainly partridge (perdix perdix) or greys with a pheasant shoot as well. Both were to be up and running by the 2007/08 season. The Stavropol region is just north of the Caucasus mountains and a wonderful place if you love the great outdoors. Things were very strange at first but I soon got into the swing of things, no one spoke English and there were no signs etc in English, so shopping and driving were quite fun and the police, well I could write a book about them and probably will. The climate is very hot in summer and bloody cold in winter with temperatures going down to –20 and +35 in the summer, beer is cheap - 14p a pint and 6% proof, and cigs are 30p a packet, I was living like a king on £250 a month.

The day it happened it was warm and I had a couple of beers with an English speaking friend (only 5 people spoke English out of a population of 15,000), this was late afternoon and a really warm day, the only thing that makes me think something was not right was my ankle felt a bit swollen but apart from that l felt great. I went home at 16:30 and had a kip, I woke an hour later and had some tea - chicken again! Showered, set a DVD up and waited for some friends to come round for a drink. The night went well and as the last person left, Sasha my friend came back to the flat and asked me to help push his car as it would not start. The old joke – "Why do Ladas have heated rear windows? So you can keep your hands warm when pushing them!" sprung to mind. Anyway this I did, off he went, and I returned to the flat, ten minutes or so later. I felt very strange - no pain, but I was not sure what was going on, all I wanted was fresh air and plenty of it. After another ten minutes my arm and leg on the left hand side felt weak so I rang a friend called Serge who came round straight away, he took one look at me and said "Why is your face hanging down? I am going to get a doctor". At this point I could still walk and talk so I agreed.

The doctor was there in minutes, took one look at me and connected me to the oldest ECG machine you have ever seen, she earthed it out on a radiator, at this point I thought she was going to shock me as a wet sponge was put on my chest. Trying to tell her my heart was ok in broken Russian must have sounded odd to her as she had never met a Westerner before, as I lay there another woman turned up and started hitting me with a rubber hammer. Then the fun started, an ambulance arrived with three nurses to carry me out of the flat, this they could not do so l walked to the ambulance, this was about 35 years old and looked like a army land rover from the 1914 war, the nurses could not fit in with me and my friend so they ran behind, the driver took a big mouth full of Vodka lit a cig and we were off.

The hospital, a small village one was shut, so I waited outside until they could wake the night porter, once inside I was put on a drip in a side ward and a cleaner or some one like that sat and held my hand all night. At this point I lost any movement on my left hand side. Next morning I was put in the intensive care unit, I had lost the taste in my mouth I could not speak and my left eye was not in focus, the ward had three beds, no curtains around the beds, but worst of all no equipment apart from a respirator which I think a hamster on a wheel ran. The next three days I was looked after by some fantastic medical staff, I never really lost my way I knew what was going on all the time to the point where a doctor turned up and stuck something in my back which nearly sent me out of the window. All I could think of was that I hope he knows what he is doing because in Russia you can become anything you want to be if you have enough money! Two more men came on to the ward - one was a car accident and one was a heart attack, they both died! I needed to get to a normal ward if that was possible in Russia. I managed to contact my family back in the UK who were very worried, Marlene my wife wanted to come out but it would have taken weeks for her to get a visa so I had to face it on my own. Day four and I was put on a side ward - no scans just drips and pills,(I never had a scan until day 14 in the main city Stavropol ).

What an eye opener that was!!!! The bed was so small I had to put chairs at the side so I could sleep, the blankets were horse hair and felt like a spaniel had slept in them for a week before, again no curtains so if you wanted a bed pan you got one and did it who ever was there, again the staff were fantastic all things considered. I could not stand, walk or move my arm or my hand, so any help had to be translated the best I could. The next ten days I just lay there, hoping all would be ok and in a few weeks time I would be running around again, how wrong I was!

The hospital had up to 2,500 inmates - I say inmates because it looked like a prison, built by Stalin for the local villagers to come to - that's if he had not had them killed in the dead of night, we had one wheelchair so getting out into the sunshine was a major problem but I did every day with the help of a Russian who was drunk all most all of the time, he even had bottles of Vodka hidden in the grounds of the hospital.

Going to Stavropol was great, this meant I would soon be home all I needed was the all clear to fly. The morning that I was due to go we had a big cock up, the ambulance did not turn up on time so things started to go backwards as they do in Russia, if you want anything doing at work or in the home give yourself a week to carry them out because nobody is in a rush like we are. Anyway I got there only to find out that I had been taken to the wrong hospital so after some hours we finally got sorted out but it was too late to have my tests done so I stopped overnight. The next day things moved very quickly, well for Russia they did, and by lunch time all had been done so it was just a matter of waiting for the results, my nurse took me for a spin in a wheelchair as she wanted some cigs from a local shop. Parking me outside I sat in the sun when a woman approached me and gave me 10 Rubles (20p) and walked off, at this point I cried with laughter, it was the first time there was a bit of light relief in what was a strange ordeal. I had to wait five days for the test results which showed I had had a bleed on the right hand side of the head which the Russians thought was due to a blow of some description as all other tests were normal. The journey back to the UK took some 17 hours and went pretty well until I got to Heathrow (no wheel chair) but I was just glad to be home.

Back in the UK and I was so happy to see my wife and two children, Tom 16 and Purdey 11. I was sure things would be ok from now on but the next day my GP came to see me at home and put me in to hospital through A+E, but and it's a big BUT, the hospital ( St James, Leeds )had no Neurology Department so I had to stay there for a week and await a transfer to the LGI, l had no physio up to this point and did not get any here either - just blood tests and pills. Luckily my family could visit me, thank god. This was a big help but apart from feeling very let down by life I felt ok, not walking or moving my arm seemed to be the least of my worries - all I wanted to know was why me! I was transferred and again more blood tests and pills, no MRI, no physio, no help in telling me what went wrong. I left the LGI back in October and have had an echocardiographic scan which showed nothing so PFO has been ruled out, I get home based phyisio now which has been fantastic, this stops soon as you only get 16 weeks and then it's up to you, god bless the NHS. I talk, walk, and can see now, but foot drop is a bit of a problem and the arm and hand are very slow to recover BUT I AM GETTING THERE thanks to my wife and children who have supported me through some very strange times. As a foot note to this I would like to add that through out all this time I have never given up AND NEVER WILL. My next battle is the DHSS which I am fighting right now and, hopefully, a return to work at some time but who knows?

Thanks to George for sending in his profile. Anyone else who would like to share their story can send it along with a photograph (if you're not shy!)

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